Israel disbelieved God even when he was present
To all this Celsus’s Jew adds: “These points, then, we have drawn for you from your own writings, and for them we need no other witness; for you contradict yourselves.” But we have shown that, in conflict with our writings, the Gospels, much nonsense has been talked in the Jew’s speeches, whether addressed to Jesus or to us. And I do not think he has proved how we contradict ourselves; he only thinks so.
And since his Jew adds to this, “In short, O most high and heavenly one, what god, when present among men, is disbelieved?”, we must say to him that even according to the law of Moses God is recorded to have been most clearly present with the Hebrews, not only in the signs and wonders in Egypt (Exodus 7:3), and further in the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21–29) and the pillar “of fire” and the cloud of light (Exodus 13:21–22), but also when the Ten Commandments were proclaimed to the whole people (Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:4–22); and yet he was disbelieved by those who knew these things. For if they had believed what was seen and heard, they would not have made a calf (Exodus 32:1–6), nor “exchanged their glory for the likeness of a calf that eats grass” (Psalm 106:20), nor said to one another about the calf, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4).
And consider whether it is not in keeping with the same people both to have disbelieved, long ago, such great marvels and so many manifestations of God throughout the whole wilderness, as is written in the law of the Jews, and, at the extraordinary coming of Jesus, not to be won over by the words he spoke with authority (compare Matthew 7:29) and by the marvels he did in the sight of all the people.
Greek
Καὶ πᾶσί γε τούτοις ἐπιλέγει ὁ Κέλσου Ἰουδαῖος· ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὑμῖν ἐκ τῶν ὑμετέρων συγγραμμάτων, ἐφ᾿ οἷς οὐδενὸς ἄλλου μάρτυρος χρῄζομεν· αὐτοὶ γὰρ ἑαυτοῖς περιπίπτετε, ἠλέγξαμεν δ᾿ ὅτι παρὰ τὰ ἡμέτερα τῶν εὐαγγελίων συγγράμματα πολλὰ πεφλυάρηται ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Ἰουδαίου εἴτε πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν εἴτε πρὸς ἡμᾶς λόγοις. καὶ οὐχ ἡγοῦμαί γε ὅτι παρέστησε, πῶς ἡμεῖς ἑαυτοῖς περιπίπτομεν, ἀλλὰ μόνον οἴεται, ἐπεὶ δὲ προστίθησι τούτοις ὁ Ἰουδαῖος αὐτοῦ ὅτι ὅλως, ὦ ὕψιστε καὶ οὐράνιε, τίς θεὸς παρὼν εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἀπιστεῖται; λεκτέον πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅτι καὶ κατὰ τὸν Μωϋσέως νόμον θεὸς ἐναργέστατα παραγεγονέναι τοῖς Ἑβραίοις ἀναγεγραμμένος οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὰ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ἔτι δὲ τὴν δίοδον τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης καὶ τὸν στῦλον „τοῦ πυρὸς“ καὶ τὴν νεφέλην τοῦ φωτὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡνίκα ἡ δεκάλογος ὅλῳ τῷ λαῷ ἀπηγγέλλετο, ἠπιστήθη ὑπὸ τῶν εἰδότων· οὐκ ἂν γὰρ, πιστεύοντες τῷ ἑωραμένῳ καὶ ἀκουσθέντι, μόσχον κατεσκεύα σαν οὐδ᾿ „ἠλλάξαντο ἂν τὴν δόξαν ἑαυτῶν ἐν ὁμοιώματι μόσχου ἐσθίοντος χόρτον“ οὐδ᾿ ἔλεγον ἂν πρὸς ἀλλήλους περὶ τοῦ μόσχου· „οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ θεοί σου, Ἰσραὴλ, οἵτινες ἀνήγαγόν (σε) ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου.“ καὶ ὅρα εἰ μὴ κατὰ τοὺς αὐτούς ἐστι τηλικούτοις τεραστίοις καὶ τοσαύταις ἐπιφανείαις θεοῦ καὶ πρότερον ἀπιστῆσαι δι᾿ ὅλης τῆς ἐρήμου, ὡς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ Ἰουδαίων γέγραπται, καὶ κατὰ τὴν Ἰησοῦ παράδοξον ἐπιδημίαν μὴ ἁλῶναι ὑπὸ τῶν μετ᾿ ἐξουσίας αὐτῷ εἰρημένων λόγων καὶ τῶν παραδόξως αὐτῷ ἐν ὄψει παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ πεπραγμένων.